Minutes of the Lansdowne Tree Advisory Board Meeting

Minutes of the Lansdowne Tree Advisory Board Meeting –

Wednesday March 9th 2011, Borough Hall. 7:15 PM, Auditor's Room

Present:Mary Lou Jennings, Helen Marcarelli,Elsie Mueller, Joe Parsio, Joyce Prentis

Absent:Jack Kelly (Park & Recreation Board Liaison), EricaSollberger (Director, Parks & Recreation)

Treasury Report: Annual budget of $3000, an additional $200 donation from Wildman Arms and money donated by University of Pennsylvania in honor of Helen Marcarelli.

Minutes: The minutes from the February 9th, 2010 meeting were read and approved.

Old Business:

Arbor Day: The Arbor Day program will be Friday, April 29th at7PM in the evening in SycamorePark. We will not have Jennie Avila, the folk song writer. We plan to have Noah Lewis who portrayed the black Revolutionary War hero Edward “Ned” Hector at last year’s program. The Board discussed doing a history and old pictures of the park if possible. A tree will be planted, Mayor Jane has been asked to attend and ML will try to get forester Phil McGrath for the program. Sycamore Restaurant will donate a gift card and possibly a money off offer towards drinks if the customer has the Arbor Day Program. The Board discussed possibly getting other business, Regency Café, the new diner, and the Dollar Tree to also donate something.

Spring Tree Planting Project: Trees will arrive April 7th and be picked up the 8th. ML and Erica had walked the blocks onPlumstead where the trees would be planted and marked locations. The types of trees originally planned to go alongPlumstead Ave. below Braddock planted in front of Line Sportswear, Pantry Food Mart, Pepper Pharmacy, etc. were too large due to wires overhead. Smaller trees were ordered. Eleven trees will go in front of the businesses and some trees were ordered for residents for a total of 29 trees. Board discussed volunteers needed for the planting on Saturday April 9th.

New Business:

Vines in trees:ML noted that there are a lot of trees in Lansdowne that are covered by vines and she passed some samples around. Periwinkle, honeysuckle, English Ivy, and a vine that was possibly bristly sarsaparilla. The vines keep the resident from noticing damage to the tree underneath. This will be discussed in the next Borough newsletter suggesting the residents keep vines off for a healthy tree.

Miscellaneous: ML had been contacted by a Boy Scout Leader interested in planting trees at St. Philomena’s.

Articles: ML and Joe P. passed around articles on trees:

DelawareCountyDaily TimesMarch 3, 2011. The article discussed the 80 foot white ash tree inMillbourne that died last year. How could the tree be remembered? Wood artisans came and picked up some of the wood to turn it into works of art.

University of PennsylvaniaPenn Current. February 17, 2011. Penn and the City of Philadelphia had a program distributing free trees to University homeowners who lived in the city.

University of PennsylvaniaPenn Current. March 3, 2011. The old Postal lands, some of which are now named PennPark will be planted with a variety of trees including London plane,honey locust, red maple, sweet gum, burr oak and dawn redwoods.

Next Meeting:The Next meeting will be Wednesday April 13th, 2011.

Meeting Adjourned:8:20PM